Music of the Bridges, is a production of environmental theatre that integrates musical, performative and figurative arts and in which the audience will be seated on a luxury cruise boat, to experience the performance of a troupe of more than 100 actors and musicians on a “stage” formed by the marvellous bridges and riverbank spaces of Tartu. The delightful sailing performance tells a tale of the spirit of the Emajõgi, of an unstoppable movement within a fluid urban environment proliferating with life and culture. The Emajõgi, separating yet connecting the two halves of the city, creates bridges, remembers, renews itself, unites.
The production makes choral music echo back and forth from one bank to the other; swings borrowed from modern circus art have been used; there’s poetry, there’s silence, there’s “walking on water”, there’s figurative swimming and Hip-Hop bouncing on roofs; there’s audio theatre and invigorating gymnastics; there’s an air, there are harmonics... The dazzling protagonists, however, are the symbols of our town – its bridges. The production combines everything into a fluid whole – the story of the riverine city and its people.
Usually the inhabitants and visitors of Tartu see the river from its banks; this production, however, offers a different perspective – an experience of how the riverside spaces and bridges sound, move, look, when you find yourself carried forth by the steady rhythm of the water flow. The ship on which the audience will drift along, keeping time with the river, is the centenarian cruise boat Arabella I, commissioned by the last Russian Tsar’s family, being the oldest seaworthy craft in Estonia and a proud newcomer on the Emajõgi.
Producer and director - Kati Kivitar
Musical director - Ove-Kuth Soosaar
Choreographer - Mari-Liis Martin
Featuring: Janne Ševtšenko, Urmas Põldma, Külli Teetamm, Rauno Kaibijainen, Laureen Laar, Janek Savolainen and a troupe of more than 100 performers, including choristers, street dancers, circus artists, schoolchildren, hobby actors, sportsmen, musicians.
“Music of the Bridges” is a part of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 main programme.